Cal Sports Report

Pac-12 in NCAA Tournament: UCLA Loses to North Carolina

All the Pac-12 teams are out of March Madness, thanks to the Tar Heels' Caleb Love

Jake Curtis

Pac-12 in NCAA Tournament: UCLA Loses to North Carolina
Pac-12 in NCAA Tournament: UCLA Loses to North Carolina /

The Pac-12 is done.

UCLA, the last team from the conference that was still alive in the NCAA Tournament, lost to No. 8 seeded North Carolina 73-66 in a Sweet 16 game Friday night in Philadelphia.

Last year, three Pac-12 teams got to the Elite Eight, and one got to the Final Four.  This year, no Pac-12 teams are in the Elite Eight, and UCLA, with the exact same starting five that got to the Final Four a year ago, fell just short of getting to the Elite Eight this time. (Well, all nine of the Big Ten teams are out, so the Pac-12's troubles don't seem so bad from that perspective.)

The problem for No.4 seeded UCLA (27-8) was the Tar Heels' Caleb Love. You will see all kinds of headlines playing with his last name.

"All You Need is Love If You're North Carolina."

"Love Is a Many Splendered Thing in Crunch Time"

"You Can't Hurry Love When It Counts Most"

"Love Will Find the Answer for the Tar Heels"

"Love Conquers All in the Sweet 16"

"Love Will Find a Way"

And on and on ad nauseam.

Love scored a career-high 30 points, seven more than his previous season high, and 27 of those points came in the second half.  

Here's an example:

But it was the final two of his six three-point shots that doomed the Bruins.

UCLA led by three points when Love nailed a long three-pointer to tie the game with 1:44 left in the game. After Jaime Jaquez missed a three-point shot for UCLA, Love nailed another long three-point shot under pressure to put the eighth-seeded Tar Heels ahead by three points.

When Armando Bacot tipped in a shot with 15.5 seconds left, North Carolina had a five-point lead and the outcome was decided.

North Carolina's prize for beating UCLA is a Sunday game against Saint Peter's, the first No. 15 seed in the history of the NCAA Tournament to reach the Elite Eight.

Besides Love's 30 points, the biggest statistic was this: North Carolina had 19 second-chance points, UCLA had six.

UCLA shot 45.2% and committed just six turnovers, while North Carolina (27-9) shot 40.9% and committed only eight turnovers.

Four UCLA players scored in double figures. Jules Bernard had 16 points, Tyger Campbell added 15, Johnny Juzang had 14 and Jaquez had 10.

Bacot had 14 points and 15 rebounds for North Carolina, but the story was Love, who had over half of his team's 45 second-half points.

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Cover photo of Johnny Juzang by Mitchell Leff, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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